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At 8:03 on Saturday night, one minute before the worst quake in 60 years hit the west coast, on-call seismologist John Cassidy was on his hands and knees, sweating and straining as he ripped carpet up in his Sidney home.

The dark streaks in the 75-million-year-old rock that looked like feathers were joked about in the field, but it soon became clear to paleontologists that it was a significant find. The discovery of three fossils in Alberta, revealed Thursday, are the first feathered dinosaur specimens to be found in the Western Hemisphere. They show that ornithomimid dinosaurs, which resemble ostriches, had feathers.

HOLGUIN, Cuba - Hurricane Sandy rumbled across mountainous eastern Cuba on Thursday as a Category 2 storm, bringing heavy rains and blistering winds that ripped the roofs off homes and damaged fragile coffee and tomato crops, but caused no known fatalities on the island.

OTTAWA — The bulk of B.C.-destined debris from Japan’s tsunami disaster in March of 2011 is expected to arrive on the province’s shores in early 2013, but chances are remote that any material will be radioactive, according to the federal government. The debris moved away from Japan’s shores several days before radioactive material was released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, and only a small percentage of the debris originates from the Fukushima area, Health Canada said in documents tabled in Parliament this week.

WINDSOR, Ont. -- A $1.4-million grant to help fund a new clean diesel research project will cement the University of Windsor’s growing reputation as a leading centre for the development of green technologies, said a university researcher who is heading up the project.

As a quick, satisfying supper, not much beats spaghetti carbonara: it goes together in barely more time than it takes to boil pasta, it’s delicious and filling, and you might even have the spaghetti, eggs and bacon on hand.

From lawyer Laura Joy's sense of style to mentor extraordinaire Joe Sisco to outstanding volunteer Tom Awad, the spring issue of Boom! magazine is proof that life is indeed good after 50. Also inside: home styles, rocker Christian Vegh and his influences, murder they wrote, green pea salad with mint and goat cheese and more.